When traveling, free wifi is god sent. While more and more places are starting to offer, it is still a rarity...
Free wifi zone near Karnan, Helsingborg. It looks like the Chennai poster plasters have gone there too...!!!!
So, when I saw this in Helsingborg, near Karnan, I was thrilled. I immediately, whipped out my phone and connected. Unlike the 'free wifi' in Chennai airport, this did work and worked well where available.
This map, pulled from a website shows the wifi spots available in any given area and its coverage. It allows you to zoom in to see exact coverage for a particular area.
I falsely assumed citywide wifi coverage and soon realized that was not the case. The wifi connection kept dropping as I moved around the city. Then I learned that, the wifi coverage is not citywide after all and only available at specific locations. Nevertheless, made best use of it, when and where it was available.
Helsingborg is a small town with less than 100k population, but its economy is booming due to open borders. The frequent ferry service to the Danish sister city, Helsingor seems to the catalyst that has made this small Swedish town humming.
From Google Maps
Oresund strait is pretty narrow and because of that, Helsingborg and the ferry connectivity has become a key commercial hub. In fact, on a clear day, you could see the city on the other side and giant ferries are waiting to take you across in 15 minutes.
Constant stream of vehicles drive to the belly of the ferry to be transported across to Denmark.
The ferries that ply across are massive, they gobble up hundreds of trucks, cars, bicycles and passengers. It's pretty much open borders on both sides with little or no control. I am sure there are plenty of cameras capturing movements at multiple places, but that's about it.
Truck seen here and plenty more like this just drive in to the ferry with little or no border control to continue driving in the Danish side.
சிங்களத் தீவினிற்கோர் பாலம் அமைப்போம்.....
India and its neighbors just concluded their SAARC meeting Nepal with little or nothing to show. At this time, open borders amongst SAARC countries is a pipe dream, though there is a strong underlying cultural and historical linkage.
If Europe, a continent ravaged and bitterly divided by two world wars can bury their hatchet and come together for the collective good of their people, There is no reason why Bharthiyar's dream shouldn't become a reality.. but will it?
Tags - Helsingborg, Sweden, India, Travel, Travelogue # 68
My workplace in Chennai is less than 2km from my home. I tried bicycling to work couple of times and gave up. Inconsiderate traffic, pollution, humidity and the need to lug a backpack all combined colluded against me my desire to bicycle to work.
But, that is not the case in Helsingborg. The weather, infrastructure & traffic are all conducive for folks to pick up the keys of bicycles instead of their cars. Even in this small town with less 100k population, there are separate lanes for bicycle everywhere.
From train stations to bus stops to shopping centers, all are bicycle friendly. They have ample place to park as well hire bicycles if needed.
At work, bicycle parking is closer to office entrance than the car parking lot. Even in the single digit weather of this Scandinavian town, I see plenty of folks coming to work by their own pedal power. It was gratifying to see several of colleagues from India, staying here long term, coming in bicycles.
Pedal power (combined with public transport) is the perfect solution for our traffic woes in Chennai. Everybody knows it.. but nothing is moving on the ground.. like Chennai traffic..:-(
Recently, I travelled to our offices in a different city with the Turning Torso as the only landmark. Wonder how? Read on..
Earlier this week, I was asked to come to Office in a different city. When asked for directions, I was simply told "Really easy, Look for the white tower and our office is right across from that'. Besides the printed directions in Swedish, this all the directions I got for visiting our offices in Malmo, Sweden. Though, I was a little skeptical, it wasn't all that difficult.
Took a train from Helsingborg to Malmo. I looked up the schedule on net, knew the time, price & platform. Armed with this information, getting to comfortable confines of the train was a breeze. Though free wifi was available, it was spotty at best. But that was enough for me to catch up with whatsapp messages and FB.
Malmo is a small little town, in the southern most tip of Sweden. Besides housing the tallest building in Nordics, it also boasts of the longest bridge linking Sweden to Denmark across Oresund Strait. My colleagues tell me that, the bridge has given a new lease of life to the city. Since the bridge opened, more Danish folks started moving to Malmo due to cheaper real estate. Live in one country and work in another.. what a concept. I seen similar phenomenon between Evian, France and Lausanne, Swiss as well. This must be happening all across Schengen countries.
Looking at this no hassle travel across most of the EU countries, I wonder what it would take to have open borders with of India's neighbors... That would be quite something isn't it? But I also know the reality that, that quite something that would not happen in my lifetime. (Enough of dreaming.. Get back to blog!!!)
As I stepped out of the Malmo station, there it was, the tallest tower in Nordics in its all twisted glory, standing tall. With the Twisted Tower as my beacon, I walked for about 20 minutes and voila, landed where I needed to go. More on the Twisted Tower here.
I don't know the definition of a true cashless society, but I didn't have to touch cash for any purpose in the last 4 days, here in Sweden. In fact, I needn't have purchased Swedish Krona from Western Union, shelling out a heavy commission. (They charge SEK 50 per transaction.)
From train stations, convenient stores to fast food restaurants, all accept cards for transactions of any value. The only prerequisite is a chip embedded card with two factor authentication. (Interestingly, my US citi bank issued card doesn't carry a chip but all my India cards do).
There is lot of talk in India about black money and bringing back monies stashed in Swiss Banks. One way to stop the growth of black money would be to make card transactions easier and prohibiting cash transactions over INR 1000.
Most of us in India know who is Karnan but do you know what is Karnan? Read on..
On a cold Sunday, with the temperature hovering in single digits (celsius) and no Sun to be found, I ventured out of my hotel room to explore the small Swedish city called Helsingborg. I didn't have my winter clothing on, so the objective was to get back before the cold got to me.
As I was nearing my threshold, found this sign board that made me curious. One thing with many European countries, they have plenty of these kind of sign boards. In some cases, it goes overboard, but in most cases I found they are useful for tourists. I saw direction to "karnan' and it was just 400 meters. So, keeping the feeling of cold at bay, I decided to 'know' what is Karnan all about.
Almost all shops were closed and the commercial activity was almost nil except for some American chain restaurants like Mcdonalds and Subway. After meandering through the empty streets and getting lost, I finally arrived at Karnan.
From here, I thought Karnan is a old fort / castle overlooking one of the Danish Straits. I also realized there is going to be bunch stairs leading up to the castle. I was right about the steps, there about 200 steps but I was wrong about the castle.. sort off..
Karnan is a tower, originally built by Danish in 14th century and later refurbished by Sweden in late 19th century. There is not much besides the tower now, but according to wikipedia, there was lot more than just the tower. There indeed was a fortress and a small commune surrounding the tower but most of it were destroyed by Swedes in the 17th century.
One could walk up the tower for SEK 40, but only during certain times of the year. It was last open on Oct 31 and opens again only in April.
The view from up top was good though it was quite chilly. Worth the trek if you are in this part of the world.
